EPA to Review Mercury Rule for Coal Plants After Complaints

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency said it will review rules to cut mercury and other
pollution from new coal plants after the industry complained
that the standards are unattainable.

The reconsideration, which will affect five power stations
planned for construction, will be completed by March, the agency
said today in a statement. The changes won’t change the
requirements the EPA issued in December for existing coal-fired
plants.

The EPA’s rule, estimated to cost $9.6 billion when
implemented, would cap pollution of mercury, air toxics and
particulate matter released from new coal plants. It is the
first rule of its kind for such plants, and one of the most
expensive in the agency’s history.

Lobbyists for power producers such as Atlanta-based
Southern Co. complained that the standards under the so-called
MATS rule for new plants were so tight that no operator could
comply, and the levels of pollution couldn’t even be tested. The
EPA said it was reacting to information that it received after
the rule was issued in December.

“Today, EPA has finally admitted what we have known for a
very long time: there are significant technical flaws in the way
the MATS standards were set,” Scott Segal, a Washington
lobbyist at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP who represents companies
such as Southern, said in an e-mail.

The agency issued separate standards for existing plants.
Most of the 1,100 U.S. plants already comply with the rules for
existing facilities, the EPA said when the rule was issued.